Wow, looks like someone at Vera deleted the recent “goodbye vera” thread that I had been keeping up on???
Interesting indeed. It had become a thread about Homeseer so although it doesn’t make it right, it is understandable.
Hi,
I started with my VeraPlus and new devices after leaving X10. Vera was a breath of fresh air, so much capability over the X10 and the Zwave devices are reliable.
I purchased my VeraPlus when they were first introduced and have been running it ever since. And for the most part happy.
About 3 months ago I started looking into Hubitat. I found the system most compelling and purchased one in April. I found it to be a very good system (not sure what it takes to be great). I decided to leave my VeraPlus and for a Hubitat.
Reasons:
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My VeraPlus needs the internet connection to work (Hubitat does not). This really grates on me. I still have the pre-purchase email from Vera telling me the VeraPlus does not need the internet to operate. This is not the case, any timed action needs the internet to operate.
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I believe the VeraPlus is underpowered and future development will be hobbled by this.
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I think the capability of Hubitat for the user to write drivers and apps far exceeds my VeraPlus.
These are my opinions based on my expectations, my technical capability and my experience. Others WILL vary. I cannot bad mouth my VeraPlus, it was a fine stepping stone from X10. I think for small to modest systems it will be fine.
I choose to write this because so many of the folks here have been extremely helpful, kind and supportive 
I don’t feel right just “disappearing”
Regards to all
John
I also purchased a habitat hub, in June. I think it has a great deal of promise. I have no t converted over however, at least not yet.
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I have Cooper Wireless dimmers and accessories in 3 and 4 way set ups. There seems to be no way in habitat to set wireless associations between the accessories and the master. You can establish some partial functionality but not full like with Vera. Since my minimote battery died, and it is discontinued, there is no work around.
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The user created apps and the like are great, but I’ll be damned if I haven’t found a repository or list of them.
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I have the new VERA secure and love it.
I ditched my Veraplus for Hubitat about 2 months ago. While it is still a young system and evolving quickly, I already find it a huge improvement over Vera. The rules machine is so powerful that I have now recreated my fairly complicated heating control system entirely in that without any special coding. In Vera I had to create pages of Lua code to achieve the same result. Vera probably still has more device driver coverage, especially for UK zwave devices, but being able to write your own drivers in Hubitat is a huge plus and more than makes up for it IMO. But the biggest bonus for me is the Zwave network performance and stability. The exact same devices that were so flaky when connected to Vera, have been rock solid on Hubitat. Come on in guys and gals, the water is lovely!
Have a hubitat too though migrating to it would be excruciatingly painful for me as I have been playing with it. If I was starting from scratch, I would probably go with it.
It still has limited control over the Zwave network compared to Zway or openzwave (for example it doesn’t handle being a secondary controller which is key to migration) and it lacks an API.
If it was the post I started, I don’t see it either.
In a way, I don’t blame Vera but on the other hand, if Vera had a quality product this would not have happened. I still come here daily to see how Vera is doing. I do hope one day to return to Vera.
Jim
My Vera is taking a back seat here. It’s still going to be used, but for a VERY limited number of devices and only because I haven’t figured out how to implement them on HA. They really should take the hint and develope the platform rather than letting it stagnate further…
I just baught a Hubitat yesterday and am looking forward to the stability as well. The last two vera firmware updates have messed up my system and I had to keep doing workarounds to make it work. Also have noticed that my z-wave network is way slower than it used to be before and I haven?t changed a thing other than the firmware updates. I?ll report back once I?ve migrated over to Hubitat. That is if they don?t delete my posts like the other thread.
If you have the skill to write your own drivers, that is great. I, unfortunately, depend on the kindness of strangers, so to speak. The plug in/App Store on Vera is very convenient. I have no seen anything like that in habitat for USER created apps or drivers, only their official apps. But, maybe I’m missing something.
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The funny thing to me is that I logged in today to delete my post indicating I was finally leaving Vera. I am back on the fence…
[quote=“JohnRob, post:3, topic:199541”]Reasons:
- My VeraPlus needs the internet connection to work (Hubitat does not). This really grates on me. I still have the pre-purchase email from Vera telling me the VeraPlus does not need the internet to operate. This is not the case, any timed action needs the internet to operate.[/quote]
I am pretty fed up with Vera right now, but Vera does not need the internet to operate. Now if you are using cloud-to-cloud plug-ins, of course they will not work without the internet. But events on timers or using local triggers will work fine - and that is 100% of my system. My automated lights, water heaters, etc work fine with the internet down. There is an issue if Vera reboots without internet such that the clock can get screwed up, which would happen with a power outage and no UPS on your internet connection or Vera - but a UPS should be part of a Vera install…
You’re surprised that they’d delete a thread complaining about Vera on the official Vera forum?
I’m not, and they’ll likely delete this thread too. :o
[quote=“wilme2, post:13, topic:199541”][quote=“JohnRob, post:3, topic:199541”]Reasons:
- My VeraPlus needs the internet connection to work (Hubitat does not). This really grates on me. I still have the pre-purchase email from Vera telling me the VeraPlus does not need the internet to operate. This is not the case, any timed action needs the internet to operate.[/quote]
I am pretty fed up with Vera right now, but Vera does not need the internet to operate. Now if you are using cloud-to-cloud plug-ins, of course they will not work without the internet. But events on timers or using local triggers will work fine - and that is 100% of my system. My automated lights, water heaters, etc work fine with the internet down. There is an issue if Vera reboots without internet such that the clock can get screwed up, which would happen with a power outage and no UPS on your internet connection or Vera - but a UPS should be part of a Vera install…[/quote]
This not quite correct. I have had a long back and forth with support and I even started a thread on this topic. The vera platform does not work without internet. I have tested it extensively and though as you mentionned, there is a clock problem, plugin needing internet access as the most obvious ones, after both of these are addressed, we have an ssh tunnel issue with the relay server as well as a number of others which can be manually disabled by editing some codes in the vera OS. At the end there is one, the RAsyncserver for alerts and events which cannot be killed and causes event logs and server calls to accumulate and eventually bog down the storage, cpu, and ethernet socket to the point of making the vera unuseable.
I do want to mention that support has tried very hard to help me with this and I am grateful for their help. Eventually the conclusion was that this sync function which requires a response from the mios server was burried too deep in the code and could not be disabled.
Why Hubitat and not Home Assistant? How are you accessing it remotely?
I’d rather they get involved and address the issues we’re having…
I’m out… It is very bittersweet and after 10+ years I found myself unexpectedly leaving. I bought a Hubitat to test out with Google Home. My Hubitat arrived at 6pm Wednesday, and by 10, I had my Vera Disconnected and ready for the recycler. I guess I forgot how easy it was in those early days and probably up through UI5 how fast and reliable home automation can be. It didn’t take but a few minutes with a new platform to pair even my legacy devices and they worked without issue. I won’t bore you with all the details, everyone here is old enough to make their own decisions; but for my wife to say in the car just around the corner “Hey Google, open the garage door,” and have it open, unlock the door from garage to house, turn on the light in the kitchen and trigger my cameras to strart recording and to have it all working fast and so far reliable is a good feeling.
I just want to thank all those, especially on the old micasaverde forum for their insight and knowledge that made this a fun journey into my foray into home automation, not just for me, but for several of my clients that have also benifited from a platform, who at that time, was very robust and reliable and easily compared to some expensive options. I was looking back, and 6 posts over 9 years on the old forum just shows how well it used to work. I wish all the best of luck and will lurk as I have in the past.
Sad to see another one go but at least it is to hubitat so I don’t feel as bad.
after a couple of months of testing running both vera and hubitat in parallel I have actually decided to do the opposite. I have taken down my hubitat. It just did not offer the depth of control I wanted and reliability was not better… granted the vera took me a lot of work to get there. The hubitat has is quirks too which I could not overcome unlike those of the vera. Good luck to you and I would not be overly surprised if you came back…
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